“I believe in America. I believe in the people of America.”

— Mitt Romney

“We are an American family and we rise and fall as one nation and as one people.”

— Barack Obama

As the election winds down, our country faces large problems – national debt, a fiscal cliff, immigration, education inequalities, crime, poverty, dependence on foreign oil, homelessness, a sluggish real estate market, persistently high unemployment, hurricane cleanup, a war in Afghanistan, and many others.

These problems will only get solved, in my humble estimation, through time-honored means.

Sacrifice and compromise. Courtesy and respect.

We cannot continue to shout obscenities via Facebook memes, in emails, around the water cooler, over fences, on talk radio, in our churches, and in our homes, and expect change.

We’ve got to find it in our hearts to agree and disagree over policy, not personality. We’ve got to come together like Christ Christie (R) and Barack Obama (D) did in New Jersey to solve the problems, not just on a day of disaster, but every day. We’ve got to learn sacrifices are necessary if we want to fix our budget problem. We have to learn that an entrenched position is an entrenched position in disaster.

And the only way our politicians will decide to compromise is if we, as individuals, choose to compromise. We can to choose to listen to each other, to quit focusing on our needs exclusively, and focus on finding ways to tear down the fence that divides us. We can choose not to only hear what we want, but hear what will help. We – you and I – can choose to find and build consensus with our neighbors, our spouses, our parents, our children, our co-workers, and especially with people of differing religious and political beliefs.

We can choose to compromise, because compromise is a choice. A choice, not just for politicians, but for all of us.

Yesterday’s gift of time … Tried very hard to listen to those that I disagree with. And will continue to do so.